{"id":372,"date":"2025-12-15T06:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=372"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:53:18","slug":"killing-leeches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-20885\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/no-leeches-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/no-leeches-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/no-leeches-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/no-leeches-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/no-leeches.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>How long does it take to learn a Chinese character or word?<br \/>\nIt varies. Some vocabulary just refuses to stick, no matter what you do.<\/p>\n<p>These are called leeches, and if you don&#8217;t deal with them, they&#8217;ll suck you dry.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that these leeches can go undetected, and if you have a large flashcard deck, they can take up a disproportionate amount of time you could have used for something more productive.<\/p>\n<p>Leeches are not only a problem for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-flashcards-are-great-for-learning-chinese\/\">students using flashcards<\/a>, of course. If you keep forgetting what a character means when reading, for example, you will waste an inordinate amount of time looking it up over and over.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, we will look at how to deal with tricky Chinese vocabulary that just refuses to stick.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tune in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">the Hacking Chinese Podcast<\/a> to listen to the related episode (#280).<br \/>\n<\/em><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5KuPhPmtjVdg33ZLKd3jt7?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border-radius:12px;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n<em>Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hacking-chinese-podcast\/id1536284827\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5iCRv1jg3j3yJZGJlYVYaO\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/r_aEu0HiOcc\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and many other platforms!<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Leeches: Vocabulary that you keep forgetting over and over<\/h3>\n<p>All students have had experiences with such characters or words, although not everybody uses the word &#8220;leech&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>What turns a vocabulary item into a leech varies and is highly individual. Fortunately, we don&#8217;t need to know exactly why a leech appears; we simply need to know how to recognise it and how to deal with it.<\/p>\n<h3>Leeches are harmless on their own, but deadly in packs<\/h3>\n<p>Before we look at how to kill leeches, let&#8217;s examine the rationale for taking them seriously. Forgetting the occasional character or word doesn\u2019t seem so bad, right?<\/p>\n<p>Based on my own numbers, leeches can take on average ten times as many repetitions to learn compared to other items, and the end result is still that you haven\u2019t really learnt them.<\/p>\n<p>This means that when you have dozens or even hundreds of them, they will waste a lot of time you could have used to learn something else.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not only a matter of time and opportunity cost; however, it&#8217;s also about motivation and frustration. Few things related to learning Chinese annoy me more than forgetting how to write the same character for the fiftieth time.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with leeches is tricky. Unless you have investigated, you probably waste more time and energy on them than you think.<\/p>\n<h3>How to spot leeches<\/h3>\n<p>Spotting leeches might seem like an easy task; if they&#8217;re so frustrating, wouldn&#8217;t you notice them without even trying to?<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes yes, especially in extreme cases. This is especially true if you forget the same character or word many times in a row.<\/p>\n<p>However, I consider myself fairly observant of my own study behaviour, and when I checked leeches after using<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/anki-a-friendly-intelligent-spaced-learning-system\/\"> Anki<\/a> for a while, I was shocked by how many repetitions I had for some characters and words.<\/p>\n<p>Some items had almost 100 reviews, which is a ridiculously high number (the worst offender last time I counted was \u660f; no, I really don\u2019t know why).<\/p>\n<p>The reason some leeches are hard to spot is that you do get a few reviews right, you kind of sort of do know the character or word, but then they slip away.<\/p>\n<p>If you failed the same flashcard eight times in a row, you&#8217;d notice, but if you get it right five times between each lapse, with weeks or months in between, you probably won&#8217;t notice.<\/p>\n<h3>Leeches in Anki and other spaced repetition software<\/h3>\n<p>If you are using Anki too, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/an-introduction-to-spaced-repetition-software\/\">or another flashcard app with spaced repetition<\/a> that shows you how many times you&#8217;ve reviewed a card and how many of those were correct, you can just check your leech status right now.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"dXeTLwWTSP\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/an-introduction-to-spaced-repetition-software\/\">Spaced repetition: What it is and how to use it to learn Chinese<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Spaced repetition: What it is and how to use it to learn Chinese&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/an-introduction-to-spaced-repetition-software\/embed\/#?secret=oC3o01wAZS#?secret=dXeTLwWTSP\" data-secret=\"dXeTLwWTSP\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Naturally, there&#8217;s no universally agreed threshold for when a flashcard becomes a leech, but <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.ankiweb.net\/leeches.html?highlight=review%20mode#leeches\">the default number of lapses to trigger a leech in Anki is 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Note that a lapse here indicates when you forget something in review mode, as opposed to something you\u2019ve just learnt or just forgot (struggling to learn something new or forgetting the same item eight times in a row does not trigger it).<\/p>\n<p>Anki will then automatically suspend leeches, and you need to deal with them and manually unsuspend them. This is a great feature that all apps should have!<\/p>\n<p>Other apps, like<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/skritter-chinese-review-boosting-your-character-learning\/\"> Skritter<\/a>, don&#8217;t have explicit leech handling, so you can&#8217;t set a threshold and show a leech report, but you can still find characters that have abnormally many reviews.<\/p>\n<p>The exact definition is not set in stone, and I encourage you to come up with your own if your study setup or spaced repetition app allows you to configure a leech threshold.<\/p>\n<h3>Tracing vocabulary errors in Chinese can be hard<\/h3>\n<p>Sometimes, what constitutes a leech is more complex than a single character or word.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dealing-with-chinese-characters-you-keep-mixing-up\/\"> What if there are characters you mix up<\/a>, so the errors are spread over two items instead of one?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"6de7NT2Skc\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dealing-with-chinese-characters-you-keep-mixing-up\/\">Dealing with Chinese characters you keep mixing up<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Dealing with Chinese characters you keep mixing up&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dealing-with-chinese-characters-you-keep-mixing-up\/embed\/#?secret=rCHN48w8rO#?secret=6de7NT2Skc\" data-secret=\"6de7NT2Skc\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Or what if you&#8217;re a bit too lenient on yourself (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/about-cheating-spaced-repetition-and-learning-chinese\/\">also known as cheating, if you want to be more direct about it<\/a>)?<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no easy fix for this, but being mindful that there is such a thing as leeches and that they can drain energy and waste time is a good start.<\/p>\n<h3>Dealing with tricky vocabulary in Chinese: Kill the leeches!<\/h3>\n<p>Now that you have identified a leech, what do you do with it?<\/p>\n<p>It depends on what kind of leech it is, so it&#8217;s time to revisit what I said about the factors creating a leech being varied and highly individual.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Weak understanding:<\/b> Most leeches are the result of poor routines for learning new characters, especially if you rely on flashcards. Did you just throw the flashcard into the deck and start reviewing it directly? That sometimes works, but it&#8217;s better to spend some time getting to know the character properly before you start reviewing it. You&#8217;re supposed to review things you already know, not completely new information. This can come back and bite you later, in the form of a leech.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/\"> Learn more about the character or word. Is it a compound? What are its constituent parts?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b>Bad mnemonics:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">If you&#8217;re using mnemonics to learn characters<\/a>, it could be that you&#8217;re not doing it right, or at least that this particular mnemonic didn&#8217;t work for this particular vocabulary item. Using mnemonics is a long learning process, and feedback like this is essential to developing your strategy. Rework the mnemonic and, if possible, note why it might have failed.<\/li>\n<li><b>Confusing similar characters:<\/b> I mentioned this above, but mixing up or otherwise confusing characters or parts of characters is extremely common. Tracing your errors to the source, or trying to figure out why you got something wrong, is a good start. I did this with seven errors I made in this article to show you how it can be done: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/7-mistakes-i-made-when-writing-chinese-characters-and-what-i-learnt-from-them\/\">7 mistakes I made when writing Chinese characters and what I learnt from them<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1sZp0RAyvR\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/7-mistakes-i-made-when-writing-chinese-characters-and-what-i-learnt-from-them\/\">7 mistakes I made when writing Chinese characters and what I learnt from them<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;7 mistakes I made when writing Chinese characters and what I learnt from them&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/7-mistakes-i-made-when-writing-chinese-characters-and-what-i-learnt-from-them\/embed\/#?secret=YhJbfXU1C1#?secret=1sZp0RAyvR\" data-secret=\"1sZp0RAyvR\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are more reasons you might struggle to remember certain characters or words in Chinese, but I think those cover the most common cases.<\/p>\n<h3>Take decisive action against leeches; they won\u2019t go away on their own<\/h3>\n<p>The most important thing isn&#8217;t exactly <i>how<\/i> you deal with leeches, but that you <i>do<\/i> indeed deal with them.<\/p>\n<p>Most leeches are easy to deal with.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have spotted them, you look at the character or word thoroughly, make sure you understand how it works, create a good mnemonic and make sure you&#8217;re not mixing it up with other characters.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to do this as soon as you track down a leech, since this might interrupt whatever else you&#8217;re doing. Instead, mark or take note of the vocabulary item in question and return to it later.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe introduce a leech hunting Sunday in your study routine.<\/p>\n<h3>Ignoring leeches just wastes more time and drains more energy<\/h3>\n<p>The above approach works almost every time, but that assumes that you take decisive action.<\/p>\n<p>The alternative, the lazy approach, is to ignore the leeches and just hammer away at the flashcards until you remember them.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that this doesn&#8217;t really work. The fact that there are leeches means that doing whatever you do for other characters or words simply won&#8217;t cut it.<\/p>\n<h3>Giving up is (sometimes) an option<\/h3>\n<p>Even though it becomes necessary to learn most characters and words at some point, and there probably is a reason why you have chosen to learn the specific vocabulary item that is now a leech, it&#8217;s important to realise that you don&#8217;t always have to fight.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s say you have a leech you&#8217;ve tried to kill a few times but which simply refuses to stick, regardless of mnemonics or any other strategy you try.<\/p>\n<p>In such a case, ask yourself: Do I really need this word? Is it common enough?<\/p>\n<p>If the answer is &#8220;no&#8221;, just delete the flashcard and get rid of the leech that way. Spend the time thus saved learning something else. If the word later turns out to be important, you&#8217;ll run into it again.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, this is something you should probably do more often than you do. Actively managing your vocabulary is important, and that includes pruning characters and words you don&#8217;t actually need or that are disproportionately expensive to learn in terms of time and energy invested.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote more about this here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/cultivate-your-chinese-flashcard-garden-or-burn-it-down-and-start-afresh\/\">Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden&#8230; or burn it down and start afresh<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Q2m2zJ5eUK\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/cultivate-your-chinese-flashcard-garden-or-burn-it-down-and-start-afresh\/\">Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden&#8230; or burn it down and start afresh<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden&#8230; or burn it down and start afresh&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/cultivate-your-chinese-flashcard-garden-or-burn-it-down-and-start-afresh\/embed\/#?secret=yeh2WybL9t#?secret=Q2m2zJ5eUK\" data-secret=\"Q2m2zJ5eUK\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Leeches: Be aware of them, track them down and kill them<\/h3>\n<p>In any case, keep your eyes peeled for leeches. Take decisive action to get rid of them, once and for all.<\/p>\n<p>A few leeches are irritating, but a throng of them will kill you. Don&#8217;t let them. Take control and make your studying even more effective.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Questions for the reader<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Were you aware of leeches before reading this article, even if you might not have called them that?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your approach for tracking and killing leeches, if you have one?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your worst leech? If you can check, how many failed reviews does it have?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/#comments\">Please let me know in the comments!<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>More about spaced repetition software on Hacking Chinese<\/h3>\n<div class=\"add_posts\"><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/an-introduction-to-spaced-repetition-software\/\">Spaced repetition software: What it is and how to use it to learn Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/\">Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-best-use-flashcards-to-learn-chinese\/\">How to best use flashcards to learn Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-flashcards-are-bad-for-learning-chinese\/\">Why flashcards are terrible for learning Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-flashcards-are-great-for-learning-chinese\/\">Why flashcards are great for learning Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-spaced-repetition-software-is-uniquely-well-suited-to-learning-chinese-characters\/\">Why spaced repetition software is uniquely well suited to learning Chinese characters<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/diversified-learning-is-smart-learning\/\">Diversify how you study Chinese to learn more<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/when-spaced-repetition-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it\/\">When spaced repetition fails, and what to do about it<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/about-cheating-spaced-repetition-and-learning-chinese\/\">About cheating, spaced repetition and learning Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/ways-improve-review-chinese-characters\/\">Three ways to improve the way you review Chinese characters<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/flashcard-overflow-about-card-models-and-review-directions\/\">Flashcard overflow: About card models and review directions<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/if-you-think-spaced-repetition-software-is-a-panacea-you-are-wrong\/\">If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea you are wrong<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/is-your-flashcard-deck-too-big-for-your-own-good\/\">Is your flashcard deck too big for your own good?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-character-challenge-towards-a-more-sensible-way-of-learning-to-write-chinese\/\">Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/you-cant-learn-chinese-characters-by-rote\/\">You can't learn Chinese characters by rote<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/measurable-progress-is-a-double-edged-sword\/\">Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/answer-buttons-and-how-to-use-srs\/\">Answer buttons and how to use SRS to study Chinese<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/vocabulary-in-your-pocket\/\">Chinese vocabulary in your pocket<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/spaced-repetion-and-rote-learning\/\">Spaced repetition isn't rote learning<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/anki-a-friendly-intelligent-spaced-learning-system\/\">Anki, the best of spaced repetition software<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<h3>All articles about mnemonics and memory techniques on Hacking Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s a complete inventory of articles about mnemonics and memory techniques for learning Mandarin, beginning with two introductory articles you should read first:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/remembering-is-a-skill-you-can-learn\/\">Remembering is a skill you can learn: Mnemonics for Chinese learners<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">How to make Chinese easier by using mnemonics and memory techniques<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Once you know what mnemonics are and how they work in principle, it\u2019s time to look at specific aspects. You don\u2019t need to read these in any particular order, just choose topics you find interesting.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/extending-mnemonics-inspiration-and-insights\/\">How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dont-use-mnemonics-for-everything\/\">Don\u2019t use mnemonics for everything when learning Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/are-mnemonics-too-slow-for-chinese-learners\/\">Are mnemonics too slow for Chinese learners?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/\">Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/cultivate-your-chinese-flashcard-garden-or-burn-it-down-and-start-afresh\/\">Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden\u2026 or burn it down and start afresh<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How long does it take to learn a Chinese character or word? It varies, but some vocabulary just refuses to stick, no matter what you do. These are called leeches, and if you don&#8217;t deal with them, they&#8217;ll suck you dry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10,12,22],"tags":[47,184,317,327,531,537],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-intermediate","category-key-study-hacks","category-vocabulary","tag-anki","tag-efficiency","tag-laziness","tag-leeches","tag-spaced-repetition-software","tag-srs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How long does it take to learn a Chinese character or word? 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